Project X in Rwanda with the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme

Project X in Rwanda with the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme

Project X recently had the opportunity to attend the second annual strategy meeting of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) in Kigali, Rwanda.

K-CEP supports organisations in developing countries to integrate energy efficiency and environmental sustainability into cooling practices. It was formed in response to the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol from 2016 which officially came in to force on the 1st of January 2019. The amendment saw 197 countries commit to cutting the production and consumption of industrial cooling chemicals (HFC’s) by 80% over 30 years.

K-CEP’s focus is on increasing the efficiency of cooling, appreciating the huge positive impacts on health and prosperity from cooling while recognising that much of the world’s cooling technology currently relies on highly damaging greenhouse gases.

Project X is working with K-CEP and GAVI (the Global Vaccine Alliance) to accelerate innovation in vaccine cold chains through our GAVI-X programme. Our goal is to enable government health programmes worldwide to test and scale clean, efficient and affordable vaccine cold chains. The GAVI-X programme will work with experts in the field to de-risk and test identified solutions in two pilot countries before accelerating investment

Peter spent 30 years as CEO/COO/FD at law & professional services firms – most recently 12 years at Bates Wells a £25 million City firm with a strong reputation as the only value driven profit-making law firm in the UK. He led Bates Wells becoming a founding B Corp and only law firm in the UK to achieve B Corp status. Bates Wells was recently reported as the law firm both with the most improved carbon footprint and the lowest carbon footprint in the legal sector, with a 90% reduction over 10 years from 6 to 0.6 tonnes per head.

He is also a Board member of Trustees Unlimited (also a B Corp) which both runs a professional recruitment service for finding Charity and NFP Trustees and “Step On Board” which is used by over 30 major City businesses to train and mentor their partner, executives and staff to become trustees of smaller charities. Finally, he is the Honorary Treasurer of the BWB Foundation.

Daniela has a wealth of experience in both business and impact. She is the Chair of Muove and a Non-Executive Director of FTSE 100 company Halma plc.

More recently, she was CEO of Granito Group, which offers strategic advisory, financial solutions and thought leadership for asset owners and asset managers to align the interests of people, profit and planet. Prior to that, Daniela was CEO of leading venture philanthropy organisation Impetus–PEF (2006-2015). During that period, she co-founded the Education Endowment Foundation and was a member of the advisory board for the G8 Social Investment Taskforce.

Daniela started her career in venture capital and private equity, working at Citibank, Goldman Sachs and BancBoston Capital. She has a MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bsc in economics from Unicamp.

Daniela has been chosen as one of “20 People who are Changing Brazil and the World for the Better”, by IstoE Dinheiro and selected by the Independent on Sunday as one of 100 people who make Britain a better place.

Belissa is an International Development Expert with over twelve years of strategic advisory, business transformation, strategic planning, and impact management and measurement. She has worked for multilateral organisations, government agencies, and private sector consulting firms in North America, Europe and Latin America. She specialises in developing business strategies, transforming strategy definitions into actionable plans, and operationalising solutions. Strong ability to engage stakeholders across different levels in the organisation and drive fact-based consensus. Fluent in English, Spanish, and French.

Graeme is excited about the potential of social and environmentally conscious business, and brings an eye for innovation and new business models.

He previously worked as an industrial designer, creating a variety of products from eye testing technology, x-ray machinery to equipment for deep-sea submarines. As well as working in UK-based design and manufacturing companies, Graeme has always retained an interest in sustainability and global development work and has spent time working on projects in India and the Philippines. In 2017 he had a research paper published based on field work with Oxfam and Habitat for Humanity which focussed on disaster preparedness for infrastructure in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Graeme holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Loughborough University and an MSc in engineering for international development from University College London.

Kat has travelled extensively, teaching English as a second language to children all over the world through the mediums of play and theatre. Seeing this method of teaching’s positive impact first-hand, and recognising the importance of sharing knowledge, Kat decided to put these skills to use in the charity and education sector. She has two years experience in supporting C-Suite leaders before moving to Project X as an Executive Assistant to the two Co-Founders. Kat is passionate about people and the environment and is combining her personal values and professional skills in a bid to help save the world through Project X Global.

Alice Rebondy

On Purpose Associate

Prior to joining Project X as a delivery support for the 10 in 10 Programme, Alice was managing strategic projects in a leading travel management company, acting as an internal consultant in activities related to structure optimisation, sales effectiveness, and global collaboration. She also worked for Ferrero France on the strategic development of a new CSR program for the brand Kinder, as well as on Trade Marketing activities for the brand Nutella. In 2017 she co-founded the Brixton Food Assembly, a local food market in South London aiming at bringing the community together around fresh, local products. Alice has some volunteering experience as a fundraiser for a charity acting around education in Burkina Faso, and participated in Model UN conferences in Cambridge and New York. She holds a Masters in Management from EDHEC Business School in France and a Master in Global Business from the University of Victoria (Canada). She’s a native French speaker who’s also fluent in English and Spanish.

James Shaw

Non Exec Director

James Shaw was born in India and educated in England at Ludgrove, Shrewsbury, RMA Sandhurst and The Army Staff College. He started his working life with a brief spell in the City before joining the Army in 1971. During his 34 years of service, he deployed to the Middle East on several occasions, Northern Ireland and The Balkans. He commanded his Regiment during the first Gulf War, a Brigade in Bosnia and the largest and most complex Division comprising 13 Brigades and 34,000 soldiers during the second Gulf War. He was awarded the MBE in 1986 for services in Berlin during the height of the Cold War and advanced to CBE in 2004. Since leaving the Army in January 2005, he has worked in Private Equity, has his own Advisory Business and acts as a mentor to a number of aspiring young individuals.

Juliet Valdinger

Associate – Development

Juliet’s joins the Project X team to support on development. Juliet brings a breadth of experience in the philanthropy developed during her time working for a Goodwill Ambassador to Nelson Mandela’s Children Fund, Macmillan Cancer Support, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and during her MSc in Grantmaking, Philanthropy and Social Investment at the Cass Business School where she gained a Distinction. She has continued to build the diversity of her portfolio: developing strategies for philanthropists, writing philanthropy and social investment advisory toolkits for wealth advisors, relationship building, and coordinating events and content for family office and philanthropic audiences.

Examples of work include mapping of Cornish coastal community landscape values, participatory natural resource use plans linked to livelihood strategies for supporting protected areas in Cambodia, Thailand and Philippines for USAID and EU projects, as well as community forestry in Nigeria for a DFID project.

She was 6 years with WWF-UK where as a design and impact advisor, she supported the conservation science and impact monitoring of the Living Amazon Initiative, supported the deforestation trend analysis with scenario assessments, and applied the IUCN ecosystem assessment methodology, she also designed and implemented with WWF Brazil an impact evaluation assessment to show the avoided deforestation of supporting rubber tappers in 3 million hectares of brazilian rainforest. All of this work was underpinned by building the capacity of local teams, facilitating community resource mapping and planning whilst linking it to remote sensing data and geographical information systems.

She is also experienced in designing strategies, projects, and developing monitoring and evaluation processes for meaningful engagement with multi-sector, and multi-cultural stakeholders. She designed and facilitated the stakeholder evaluation of the WWF PISCES project and evaluated the Civic Mediation process used in the Celtic Seas Partnership to explore relationships between the Scottish fishing industry, E-NGOs and Government. She has also worked with ZSL as an impact manager and more recently conducted an evaluation of WWF-Indonesias conservation strategy.

She has an engineering degree, a masters in land and water management and a doctorate in political ecology from Kings College London as well as masters courses in renewables energy.

Nadia is a passionate international climate policy specialist, with diverse experience across the private sector, public sector and environmental standards. Before joining Project X Nadia supported the UNFCCC Secretariat in working with the Executive Committee for loss and damage in operationalising its mandates. Prior to this, Nadia spent more than four years inPwC’s Sustainability and Climate Change practice, working with private and public sector clients including British Venture Capital Association (BVCA), WBCSD, World Bank, and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on the Climate and Development Knowledge Network. She holds a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Environment Technology (Dist.) both from Imperial College London.

James Hulse

Director of the Project X Finance Community

James graduated from Oxford University and then spent almost 20 years as a trader and fund manager, including setting up the world’s first climate change hedge fund. He left the financial markets in 2008 to take a Masters in Environmental Technology at Imperial College and moved into the NGO sector to work with investors to help them address the risks and opportunities from climate change with a particular focus on ESG strategy and integration. Prior to supporting the Project X programme, James headed up the Investor team at CDP, building its investor community to 830 investors representing $100 trillion in assets.

Simon Pringle

Director of Strategic Communications

Simon has more than 20 years’ experience in commercial strategy, innovation and risk management. He is Managing Director of Project Rome, a communications and strategy consultancy. Previous roles include Head of Sustainability and Innovation at the accountancy firm, BDO and Managing Partner of the Sustainable Business Practice at PIPC, an international programme management consultancy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and visiting Professor of Sustainability and Innovation at Chester University.

Nigel Higgs

Director of Finance

Nigel Higgs is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and holds a Masters degree in Finance. During Nigel’s 35 years in business he has held a variety of senior finance and operational roles in companies ranging from SMEs to large multinationals both in the UK and Europe. Nigel also brings experience of working with venture capital funded companies, from start-up through to exit.

Thomas Vellacott

Non Exec Director

Thomas is CEO of WWF Switzerland. Prior to taking on the role of CEO in 2012, Thomas spent 9 years heading up WWF Switzerland’s programme division and was responsible for the organisation’s national and international conservation projects. Previously, he worked in private banking for Citibank and as an engagement manager for McKinsey & Co. Thomas holds degrees in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Durham, in International Relations from Cambridge and in Business Administration from IMD.

Sue Charman

Non Exec Director

Sue is the Head of Corporate Stewardship Finance within WWF-UK and has been with WWF-UK since 2010. Previously Sue had been with Barclays for 23 years and had undertaken a number of senior roles, including Financial Controller for the Global Retail and Commercial Bank, Head of the Finance and Reporting Service Centre, and Group Programme Director Sarbanes Oxley. Sue is a chartered accountant with 23 years of experience in the finance sector and a German degree (BA Honours) from Exeter University.

Professor Steve Evans

Executive Chair and Director of Industrial Sustainability

Steve is Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Manufacturing and Director of the Centre for Industrial Sustainability. His 30 year plus career within industry and academia, which includes 12 years at Martin-Baker and as Professor of Life cycle engineering at Cranfield, has focused on how industry can bring environmental and social sustainability concerns into design and manufacturing practices to bring about a sustainable industrial future.

Dr Rob Wylie

Non Exec Director

Rob has focused on technology commercialisation and impact investing in resource efficiency sectors for around 30 years. He is co-founder and Chairman of a number of investment organisations including WHEB, Cambridge Agritech and Five Seasons VC. A chemist with an MA and PhD from Cambridge, Rob spent ten years in Shell’s agrochemical business before working in the 1980s with Rothschild’s Bioscience unit investigating environmental investment opportunities. He then joined KPMG where he worked on numerous M&A and privatisation transactions as well as on the development of environmental funds.

Kate Wolfenden

Co-Founder

Kate was a serial creative entrepreneur running several small businesses before moving into the NGO sector and developing corporate partnership programmes over 6 years for award winning charities such as Oxfam, Carbon Disclosure Project and Childreach International. After completing an MBA Kate moved into an innovation role at WWF to create novel fundraising models. She then developed Project X with Marcela Navarro over 18 months.

Marcela Navarro

CEO & Co-Founder

With a career of over 20 years of experience in value chain, sustainability and banking, Marcela is a recognised leader in purpose-led transformation models, with a proven track record in South America, North America and Europe. Prior to co-founding Project X, Marcela was Head of Customer Innovation at RBS, and a member of its Corporate Banking Board, where she led innovative programmes transforming the way traditional systems work together, resulting in multimillion pound savings, additional revenue for the bank, its customers and suppliers and significant environmental benefits. In 2015, she was recognised as Leader of the Year by Business Green and in 2014 she received a Word of Difference Award for her contributions to supplier inclusion.